Reunions

“Hey man! Long time, no see!” I said cheerily as Matt looked up at me from the floor. I quickly closed the portal and he stood up and groggily looked around.

“What am I doing here?” He asked agitatedly looking around the living room of the familiar cottage that we had both lived in. His gaze finally fixed on me and all I could do is give a smile.

“Well I kind of have something important that I want you to be a part of.” I smiled at him and he gave a slight sigh, bowing his head slightly.

“Fine, what do you need me for?” He was still glancing around, almost as if he was expecting an ambush at any moment. I laughed slightly before tapping the end of my muzzle with my hoof.

“That’s for me to know, at the moment anyway.” With a small chuckle I led him out of the cottage and down the street. He didn’t seem best pleased that I had dragged him back through into Equestria, but he wasn’t objecting too much, for the moment at least.

“So are you ever going to tell me what I’m here for? Or have you just dragged me back so we can go for a walk?” I turned to face the source of the un-amused words. Matt was trudging along beside me, dragging his hooves slightly. Almost like a schoolfilly who didn’t get her way.

“You’ll find out soon enough, but first I think we need to do something.” I looked up at the hollowed out large tree where Twilight lived. Matt obviously hadn’t been paying attention to the direction I had him follow me in. He took one look up to see where we were and refused to walk any further.

“I’m not going in there.” He announced, his voice stained with sadness and a slight hint of rage. I sighed and turned to face him.

“Well you need to if you want to find out what you’re here for.” I said flatly, hoping that the serious tone in my voice would convince him to enter. No such luck.

“Sorry Robbie, I just can’t.” With that he took a seat on a bench, “You go ahead though if it’s so important.”

I sighed, and trotted towards the library. I gently knocked on the door and entered, as I always did whenever I needed a book or anything else. I glanced around the library for any sign of Twilight but there was none to be found. I groaned at my luck, but then I spied the small purple and green dragon that cared for the library and cleaned up Twilight’s mess.

“Spike!” I called out softly, catching the dragons attention. He walked over to me and as usual I gave him a hoof/fist bump before continuing the conversation. “Is Twilight around? I need to see her for something and it’s pretty urgent.”

“Yeah sure thing, I think she’s upstairs reading some soppy love story with her box of tissues again. I’ll just fetch her for you.” With that he jogged up the stairs. Spike had always been very helpful, in my experience, and I had developed a small friendship with him after Matt had left. I often checked in on Twilight with Rainbowdash whenever I could. She seemed to lock herself away for days, never coming out and blowing off her friends just to be alone. I had felt sorry for her at the time, but she seemed to return to normal after a while. Spike returned shortly, with Twilight in tow and I smiled at her warmly before greeting her.

“Hey Twilight!” I said as enthusiastically as possible, trying to lighten the situation as much as I could before the shock of what I was about to ask her to do.

“Hello Robbie, what can I do for you?” She asked me formally, and I took a moment before replying.

“Well you see, I’ve asked Matt to come back for the celebrations in a few weeks and I need you to cast the spell enabling him to walk on clouds for me.” I smiled after asking to help lighten the mood but it didn’t seem to work.

“Matt’s here?” she said panicking slightly and rushed over to a mirror, “Do I look alright? Where is he? Is he here?” She began to fluster over her mane and darted about looking for a brush and I was slightly surprised at the speed she could move when she was in a slight panic.

“Matt is here, and it sitting on a bench outside waiting for me. I still have to get a reply from my other friend to see if he is able to come, so I may need to ask this favour again.” I felt bad asking this much of Twilight, but she never seemed to mind anything that would help her develop her magic.

“Give me a moment, and I’ll be right out to do it for you,” She said now rushing towards the window at blinding speed, “Wow it’s been so long since I’ve seen him. He doesn’t look like he’s aged a day!” I had a slight chuckle at her over-reaction and waited patiently for her to finish getting ready.

“Right,” She announced before taking a deep breath, “Let’s go.” I walked out of the library first, making my way to where Matt was sat, looking rather agitated. Twilight followed close behind me and his eyes seemed to light up when he saw her. I couldn’t tell whether it was from excitement or horror but he didn’t try to leave, so I assumed that was a good sign.

“Matt, Twilight’s going to cast a spell to enable you to walk on clouds.” I said calmly to the unicorn who was now staring at me with a look of loathing in his eyes directed straight into my being. Twilight now stepped around me and her horn began to glow. Matt made no attempt to move away from her as her horn came into contact with his and the spell took effect. I sighed knowing that the awkwardness would soon be at an end.

“So how have you been?” Twilight asked him, causing a lump to form in my throat. He looked around for a second before answering.

“Pretty horrific.” He answered bluntly, causing me to almost face-hoof, “But surviving non-the-less. Yourself?” I was surprised that he had asked her, given the awkwardness of the situation but he was putting on a polite face at least.

“I’ve been alright, thank you.” She replied, obviously sensing the slight venom in his voice and recoiling from the hostility slightly. I decided now would probably be the best time to move along and not drag out this time bomb of emotions any longer.

“Well Matt, shall we move on?” I said forcing a smile onto my face and pushing him in the general direction of my house, turning to thank Twilight and mouthing an apology for his behaviour. We slowly walked towards the outskirts of Ponyville, where my new abode floated in the sky in front of the beautiful lake to the east of the town. I pointed it out on the horizon to Matt and he gasped slightly at the sight of it. Rainbows were formed across the roof, from cloud to cloud, the architecture inspired by traditional Pegusi buildings from Cloudsdale, tall pillars stood firmly beside the front door which towered to a rather grand height. I smiled looking at my home and the surprises that awaited Matt when he arrived.

“Well I need to carry you from here,” I said to him, and once again he didn’t look amused. He climbed onto my back and I spread my wings, taking to the sky. It was unusual having to carry another pony on my back, but not unfamiliar. There had been a few occasions where Rainbowdash had injured herself and I had had to carry her to the hospital. They were few occasions, but it happened all too often for my liking.

I set Matt down on the cloud layer outside of the front door, which was mainly a kind of cloudy garden to relax upon. I trotted over to the door and Matt followed me, apprehensively taking each step, as if he would fall through the clouds at any moment. I opened the front door allowing his eyes to land on the entrance hallway. It was spacious, with a large staircase leading upstairs to where the all five bedrooms were found. Trophy cases lined the walls, containing pictures of Rainbowdash and the Wonderbolts, as well as her large collection of trophies from multiple sporting events. In frames at either side of the trophy cases, were my gold records from several successful albums, which allowed me to purchase this amazing house.

The patter of small hooves snapped me out of my trance and I glanced around to find the source. Matt obviously found it before I did, his face looking shocked as a small grey Pegasus filly with a rainbow coloured mane galloped over to me.
“Daddy!” She shouted enthusiastically leaping up towards me. I reared up on my back legs, catching her and placing her gently on my back.

“Hey Kiddo! How are you doing?” I said just as enthusiastically back, giving her a huge smile.

“Great! Mommy just made cupcakes and they’re delicious!” She squealed back with excitement. Her eyes then landed on Matt, who was still stood with an extremely shocked expression on his face. She became quiet, as any shy filly does, and then hid her face behind my wing. I chuckled slightly at her sudden change in mood and gently placed her on the ground.

“Matt I’d like you to meet Rainbow Dancer,” I said proudly gesturing to the filly who was now pressed against my front legs, “Rainbow Dancer, this is your Uncle Matt, remember me telling you about him?” She nodded slightly and I felt her relax a little.

“Well then!” I scooped her up onto my back again, “Let’s see those cupcakes you mentioned!” I took off at a gallop towards the kitchen, Matt following obviously shocked at the size of my house and the fact that I had a filly. But he was in for another couple of shocks today so he had better get used to it. I screeched to a halt in the kitchen, in front of the counter that stood in the centre of the room. A large stove sat underneath the window at the far end, a collection of pans and other cooking utensils hung neatly above. The entire place was finished in white, to give it an almost sterile look. Matt joined us quickly and as promised there were some rather messily iced cupcakes sitting on the bench cooling.

“Did you help make these?” I asked her taking a deep sniff of the freshly baked treats. The little filly nodded and I placed her down on the floor, “Well you’d better hope that I don’t eat them all before a certain little pony gets any of them.” I teased slightly, giving her a playful wink.

“NO!” She gasped in horror before galloping out the room, “MOMMY! TELL DADDY NOT TO EAT ALL THE CUPCAKES!” I smiled a little at her as she disappeared from sight.

“So when did you have a filly?” I heard Matt say from behind me, almost startling me. He hadn’t said a word since we had arrived at the house.

“Well we found out Rainbow was pregnant a few months before you left, she’s about one and a half now.” I smiled proudly as he walked over to me, “I asked to keep her first name as Rainbow, because of the mane, obviously. But we needed something to keep it different from Rainbowdash, and Rainbow wanted her to be an athlete and I wanted her to do something with music, and there’s only one area where those two combine. Dancing, so we named her Rainbow Dancer. Nice huh.”

“And you named me her uncle?” A look of disbelief and the closest thing to a smile that I had seen all day broke out on his face.

“Yeah well, when you don’t have any family, you need to create some, and you were the only person that I could think of to say was my brother, so you are now an honorary uncle.” I proclaimed the last part proudly as Rainbowdash made her way into the kitchen.

“Hey there, where have you been all day?” She asked before giving me a kiss and I gestured towards Matt who was now looking rather sheepish. Rainbow looked astonished, and soon everything that was on her mind came pouring out of her mouth.

“I thought you said he wasn’t coming back? You seemed so sure that you would never see him again, what’s changed? Has he seen Twil…” I pressed my hoof to her mouth gently to stop the flood of questions flowing before calmly explaining.

“Well you see, I asked Matt nicely to come out here because we have something to tell him, and he came out. And he did have a slight encounter with Twilight earlier to allow him to walk on clouds.” She looked at me, then back to him. This continued for a little while before she finally came around to the fact that he was here.

“So have you told him yet?” She asked excitedly.

“Not yet, I was waiting until you were present so it would be appropriate.” I turned now to face Matt, standing by Rainbow’s side and wrapping a wing around her.

“Matt,” I began, struggling to find the right words in my head, “I asked you to come all the way out here, on such short notice, because Rainbow and I got engaged a few months ago and the wedding is in a couple of weeks. I wanted to ask you, if you would be my best-colt and stand by my side at the ceremony.”

I watched his eyes light up, and change from shock, to sheer happiness in a moment. He looked back and forth between us, the pause he was taking was causing a knot to form in my stomach.

“Of course I will!” He announced happily, throwing his front legs around both of us, “Congratulations you guys! I always thought you were great for each other!” Rainbow and I blushed slightly at this and I gave him a quick bro-hoof.

“Mommy! Scoots won’t let me play on the Neightendo!” Rainbow Dancer shouted through from the living room. With a sigh Rainbowdash trotted through to sort out the problem and that left Matt and I alone in the kitchen once more.

“Did Rainbow Dancer just say Scoots?” Matt asked slightly confused, “Are they friends?”

“Actually, we kind of adopted Scootaloo a while back,” I answered solemnly, “I was walking back from the recording studio late one night, and it was pretty stormy. It was raining heavily, so I was hurrying as quickly as I could to get home for some shelter, but I wasn’t flying because the winds were too strong for me to handle for a long time.” I sighed remembering back to that night, the wind chill was horrendous, and the rain hit you so hard it stung slightly. Rainbowdash had set up a pretty good storm I had to admit!

“But then I came across something I never thought I’d see,” I continued, taking a slight pause at this point to trot to the fridge and get myself an apple juice. “I was trotting through an alleyway, and I noticed a large box at the side with a little light protruding from the opening. I thought it was curious so I went to investigate and found Scoots curled up in the bottom with a flashlight. I asked her why she wasn’t at home, and it turns out that she didn’t have a home to go to. Poor thing had no parents or house, so I couldn’t leave her there. I invited her to stay with Rainbowdash and I and she’s never left.”

I took a sip of my apple juice and watched him think over everything I’d just told him, it was a lot to take in on your first day back in Equestria. I offered him a drink and he took a glass of apple juice as well, before we sat on the chairs at the counter, discussing everything he had missed in the time he had been gone, and everything that was upcoming.

“So do you have anyone else coming to the wedding apart from me?” Matt asked me intently over the table, and I paused to think for a moment before I smiled to myself. I knew exactly who was coming.

“Only one person I can think of,” I smiled to myself as the thought of kidnapping another friend of mine sprang to mind, “Bryan.”